May 2009
2 posts
Moving
I have relocated my writings to a full fledged blog site (here).
Revenue and earnings forecasts; active vs. passive...
When companies like Intel are hesitating to forecast revenue numbers because of the current economic environment, do startups need to come up with one for their investors? The answer is yes, but we may need to give them a little more wiggle room than usual. The difference lies in the divergence between internal budgeting and external investor communications — as active investors and board...
April 2009
6 posts
1 tag
Narrow based markets (tech, telecom, India)
I was looking at some data put together by IndiaNomics listing the top 50 IT companies in India and the top 30 Telecom companies. It has some interesting implications for VC/PE investing here. It is striking how quickly the value graph tapers down to $200M market cap.
Telecom: The top four operators together account for 90% of market cap. And this does not include Vodafone which rolls up into...
Knock-offs.in
The folks at the young but fastest growing Indian online destination (in.com) have now floated Blish, a knock-off of Tumblr. Tumblr was a major innovation in the world of personal publishing - it sits between blogs and Twitter defining the space where most substantive thoughts lie. Some of its coolest features are easy media support, post by email, and Twitter integration.
[This mini-blog is...
Managed services
The first conference on Managed Services in India came together in Delhi last Friday at the underwhelming Hotel Lalit in Connaught Place. I had to be there - not least because I have several investment and strategic interests in the sector (NetMagic, Colt, etc.)
Summary learnings from the show (since some of you asked about my thoughts via LinkedIn:
The “Managed Services” show was...
1 tag
Monetizing content in emerging markets
(I’ve got a slew of thoughts sitting in my drafts folder that I need to get out today.)
Money-spinning content engines in the West may have to think hard about their emerging market strategy; especially markets like India.
One case in point: HBO which is a premium commercial-free channel in the west (I used to pay $10/mo to receive it) is FREE in India and competes with 200 other channels....
Oil prices
Oil prices rose sharply Thursday despite recent indications that energy use is way down. The trend chart also looks interesting. Is this the beginning of the end of the gloom?
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OmniGlobe trotting
That little company in Montreal that my Columbia Business School classmate Jason Neale and I founded in 2004 is now reaching puberty! We made Branham’s list last year as a top 25 company but this year we are the fastest growing IT company in Canada. OGN ranked 164 in the top 250 tech companies in all of Canada. I am proud of what the team has achieved with so little.
March 2009
3 posts
Mobile value added services
Last Friday (March 6th, 2009), I was invited to speak at a day long conference on Mobile Value Added Services organized by the local chamber of commerce. This was one of the better attended shows I have been to lately - most conferences this year have been disappointing. The entire program would be of interest to anyone wanting to learn more about the #1 telecom market as of this month where...
India update
I moved to India in June from the US, so have developed a personal view on the situation here, if it interests you: At a macro level, we have seen a gradual dampening of growth (down from 9% forecasts for 2009 a few months ago to about 5% to 6% now. The IMF projects it at the lower end of the range and the self-serving politicos claim the higher end. Some sectors like IT and BPO (about 15% of...
Feb job data numbers for the US are ugly. What is...
http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2009/03/06/business/20090307_JOBS.html http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/07/business/economy/07jobs.html?em
The New York Times reports this morning and I quote the link above: “The unemployment rate surged to 8.1 percent, from 7.6 percent in January, its highest level in a quarter-century. In key industries — manufacturing, financial services and retail —...
December 2008
1 post
The aftermath
A few hundred thousand working souls (including myself) reported to work this morning at Nariman Point. I had picked up my custom macchiatto at the CCD at Chowpatty (as I always do) where the morning crowd was just building up. The al-fresco seating was much in demand - within yards of where one of the terrorists had his head blown off and the other feigned death till he was discovered and...
November 2008
5 posts
Terror in Mumbai: personal update - II
The media continues to cover the mayhem in Mumbai but the overall situation is still grim after 46+ hours. The hostage crises in all three locations have now shifted to a mop up operation. But it is only now that we are beginning to absorb the magnitude of this tragedy. The death toll as of now is over 150 and 300+ were injured.
At the Oberoi, most of the casualties are being reported at the...
Terror in Mumbai: personal update
A number of our friends from around the world have been calling in to ask about our welfare as this great city is under assault by an armed militant outfit of unknown affiliation. We are all okay and most people in our extended family and circle of friends are accounted for.
This attack has touched our lives quite closely: the two five-star hotels targeted are favorite haunts of the expat...
Drync it up
Those who like both wine AND gadgets, I have something for you. Check out www.drync.com. Drync is like Kayak for wine. Search hundreds of thousands of wine listings from your iPhone or iPod Touch, read professional reviews and ratings, and save wines to your virtual cellar. Drync is the sommelier in your pocket that even let’s you buy the wine right from the phone. And yes, more...
Mumbai trends
Like any major metro, the denizens of Mumbai (called Mumbaikars colloquially) like to consider themselves trendy. Life in a striated society is a little limiting: you are generally exposed to people “like you” in some way: professionally, by education, income, tastes in food or even perhaps your expat origin. Although I cannot comment on everybody in the city, within these...
September 2008
2 posts
Business travel - BOM-BLR-BOM
A typical daytrip from Mumbai to Delhi/Bangalore/Hyderabad typically goes:
Wake up at 5am to get into a chauffeured car at 6am. (The ride to the airport takes 20 minutes at this hour, but 3 hours at peak times)
The airline’s valet meets you at the kerb and helps you check in our bags and carries your carry-on to the check in desk (no kidding, I have seen guys use the valet for their laptop...
Q3 2008, reporting from India
It has been exactly three months since I left the US to take up an investing role with a private equity fund in India. It has been a fascinating transition on both personal and professional fronts. I am hoping to get back to a posting with some frequency. I want to focus for a while on my move since there are several of my friends considering global relocation options. The clouds of...
May 2008
4 posts
The Rise of the Rest
Fareed Zakaria who has a healthy track record for insightful essays on everything ranging from the war on terror to Iran to US foreign policy has now produced an interesting work called the “Post American World” - the thesis here is that while we obsess about what the world thinks of us, the rest of them have sort of moved on. To quote an excerpt from his book: “Look around. The...
Social ramifications of Mac v. PC
Moving through airports, coffee-shops, university campuses on three continents over the past month (Asia, Europe and N.America) I was struck by how similarly these markets have developed for Apple. Mac products have established themselves as a status symbol. More important than the economic status that owning a premium product conveys, the fact that corporations have not adopted Apple products...
Technology is empowering.... and levered
Much has been made of the telecom boom in India; that it is the fastest growing mobile market in the world for handsets, mobile voice and data services and network equipment. I got to see it first hand today with my chauffeur using his mobile effectively to coordinate pick ups and drop offs in a city devoid of parking spaces. He would use “missed calls” for signalling to avoid paying...
Heath-woe airport
I am broadcasting live from Mumbai, India this week! So stay tuned for stories from my adjustment to a new way of life where the good stuff is all abstract (unless it is edible) and the bad stuff is all very tangible and in my face. But I digress from my rant about flying this distance. Those of my friends who live more on airplanes than in their homes had better watch out for Heathrow if you...
April 2008
2 posts
Congress takes notice of GOOG and evil
A few weeks ago I had written up my view of Google having a game theorist work the spectrum auction to get their way without spending the money. Seems like folks in Congress are also sniffing the same smells here. — quoting the bloomberg article — Google `Gamed’ Airwave Sale, Republican Lawmakers Say (Update1) By...
India Rising
An interesting documentary (radio show) by the BBC that looks into the changes in India over the past decade. The Changing World: India Rising, Part One The Changing World: India Rising, Part II, Part I
March 2008
5 posts
First "Lady"
Carla Bruni has taken the UK by storm. We have had our share of glamor in the White House but would we ever be able to deal with an ex-super-model as a First Lady? After all, pictures of Carla in the buff appear all over the Intuhnet. No paparazzi required!
Do networking equipment vendors still need a big...
I was intrigued to see a recent earnings report from ADVA Optical Networking that blamed their shift to a direct sales model for a recent drop in revenues and earnings. Over the past year, I have seen CEOs at telecom startups increasingly point to a direct sales model. Does this mean that operators have relaxed their requirements for Tier 1 OEMs to shepherd adoption of new technologies?
GOOG doing evil? Or just playing smart?
Getting serious for a bit now! For you mobile heads, as you know, the FCC’s 700 Mhz spectrum auction is winding down with incumbent carriers paying staggering amounts for their piece of ether. There has been much excitement about GOOG getting in on the action to set up a nationwide carrier. But by all accounts, Google is not really signing up for spectrum at all. However their threat of...
100 Weird Facts About the Human Body →
mareen: (via peterwknox, three50eight, bluechameleon) “Humans shed and regrow outer skin cells about every 27 days. […] Chances are that last month’s skin is still hanging around your house in the form of the dust on your bookshelf or under the couch.”
Downward facing Bear
There is a lot in the media today about the demise of Bear Stearns. Enough said! What I was mulling was a chart to plot the loss in value of the company as measured by market cap. Turns out I would need a logarithmic scale.
August 2007
1 post
1 tag
